Come Cruise With Me: Writing Warm-up Exercises

So, I’m sitting here in front of the monitor, you know the feeling, trying to write and I’m thinking, “huh?”  You’d think it’d be easier if you already have some writing started to just get on with it, right?  To just get the thing written and polished and finished, already.  But my mind shies away from it, like a skittish horse from a rattlesnake.  So, what’s going on with that?

So, I asked myself, “Self, huh?”  (Self understands short sentences best.) 

Self says, “Music.”  (And it utters single words best.)

Oh. 

Now, I think about when I sit down to play my instrument of choice.  Sometimes, I want to get right into a piece that I’ve been working on, that I’m excited about.  But I know better.  Yep, all you serious musicians and music teachers are shaking your index fingers at me right now, ‘cause you know that you are supposed to warm up, first, right?

Yeah, like scales and arpeggios.  Yeah, that’s one way to start, with set notes that lie at the foundation of most music.  Or maybe, first, a little improvisation, to get the mental juices flowing.  And then, the scales and arpeggios.  With sports and exercise, same thing: warm up, first; work out; then, cool down to finish.

So, why not with writing?  I’m not talking about writing prompts that say to write about your first day at school or the objects on your desk.  Those are good, too, but they’re still asking for full on writing.  I’m thinking more of something that will get me from zero to cruise speed, more of an in-between step.

So, I got basic.  A little improvisation for writing.  We’ll need to get to those scales and arpeggios, too, but this is what I’ve got so far.

Letter Go Wild

You’ve got two minutes.  Write (or key in) words that start with or include the letter of the day.  You choose the letter: the more random, the better. 

Here is an example of what I came up with the first time.  You’ll notice that I did not begin with the logical choice of the letter “a”.  Try to keep away from that logic stuff for this exercise.

Letter Go Wild: W

Whoopee

Whip

Wow

Wonder

West

When

Whip

Willow

Wedding

Waistcoat

Wessing?

Wesley

Wellesly

Wubber?

Wumbelism?

Wonky

Wicked

Wilhelm

Wecipe*

Wohemia*

Whitakers

Wokawemia

Webmickedy

Wonnebennow

After the first time through, I stopped putting question marks and asterisks after slip-ups and mistakes and just left them as they were and typed it correctly on the next line.  We spend all day correcting ourselves and conforming to rules.  So, why do we expect our minds to just free-flow on demand when we want to write?  A little “everything goes, everything flows” play should loosen it up.  Here’s the second trial run:

Letter Go Wild: P

Potato

Press

Posse

Passive

Passic

Possible

Patriotic

Cowslip

Posy

Pakistan

Pugnacious

Pandemic

Pad

Pasta

Pasty

Putrid

Puck

Pucknacious

Puke

Packy

Pucky

Pluck

Possible

Paranoid

Pontificate

Powr

P[ow

Power

Plan

Plant

Planit

Planty

Parliament

Parlor

Parle

Pest

Pesto

Pen

Pep

Peer

Purr

Puck

Pluck

Pun

Punny

Pun-tificate

Pontificate

Prarie

[prairie

Primal

Primacy

Peer

Peer

Pan

Pen

Pan-tificate

Pep

Pepper

As I went along, my brain came up with hybrids of 2 or more words, with words that weren’t words and with completely random collections of sounds and letters.  I went with it and wrote them down.  The effect seems to be a little destructive to my sense of structure, but I’m thinking I’m in the middle of an evolution.  I guess I’ll see how it plays out.

I do know that this exercise is easy to sit down to do, so I don’t avoid it, and after it, I am launching right into writing without a second thought.  That’s an improvement and that’s what I was looking for: get me to cruising.